Sunday, February 24, 2013

In 2009, I was
presented the challenge of establishing multiple international manufacturing
operations for Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation. Four years later, major
operations have been established and are delivering helicopter hardware from
India, China, Poland and the Czech Republic, and the S-92 global partners in
Taiwan, China, Brazil, Spain and Mexico have met the production ramp-up.
I was given the opportunity to prove international operations can be
established using a robust program management orientation, on-demand
domain expertise, virtual leadership, cultural awareness and strict progress
gate criteria and metrics.It is now
time to return to our Huntington Beach, CA home, enjoy life and see what new
challenge presents arises.

When
I left Boeing in 2009, I posted a LiaV blog on how to leave a company titled “Exit with Grace.”It was an exploration of
the best way to leave a company and I concluded that we should all leave gracefully
and truthfully. I get to take my own advice again. That post got 49 comments
that varied greatly.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Once
upon a time there was a talented carpenter worked for the King. He had
constructed many beautiful palaces and monuments for the king. He had grown old
and wanted to retire from service. So one day he went to the king and requested
to be relived from service. The King was sad and asked him to do one final
project. The carpenter was given the task of constructing a house before he
retired. The carpenter was upset. The King gave another task even though he
wanted to retire. He decided to finish off the house at the earliest, with
least possible effort. To speed up the work he decided on a low involvement
design, shallow high speed foundation, low cost material and fast, poor quality
workmanship. He was focused on completing the house and retiring forever from
the service. He rarely found time for site supervision. Soon the house project
was completed. The carpenter called the King, to hand over the house. The King
took the Keys, but handed over the keys back to the carpenter. The King said
“You have served me faithfully my friend. This is my Farewell Gift to you, my
loyal one”. The carpenter was left dumbstruck – Only if I had known the house
was meant for me.

This story illustrates the quality dilemma,
which many of us face in course of our professional career. We are
tempted/prompted to make a trade-offs between quality of work/product versus
speed of work/ throughput time/profits / cost of product. At least at some
point of time many people are tempted to sacrifice quality for cost or
delivery.

How do you deal with the cost/quality
tradeoff? What do you teach you people?

(This
LiaV post was provided by Tony Joseph, member of United Technology’s Operations
Leadership Program based in India).

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